"When I was starting there definitely was more of a stigma, like, 'Oh, hockey's not a girls' sport,'" Skarupa said. "Nowadays, it seems more common and so many girls are picking up hockey sticks and loving it, and I don't see as much as a reluctancy, which is great."
Skarupa, 25, got interested in hockey because her older brother played. With few opportunities for girls at the time, she played on boys' teams. She switched to girls' hockey when she was 11 or 12 and later played for the Washington Pride, a local women's junior team.
"The camaraderie that you have in a sport with a bunch of different girls, that you all have that interest in common, it makes such a big difference," she said. "I had a lot of fun once I transferred to the girls' side. Some of the friends that I met when I was playing on a team at 11 or 12 years old, I'm still, like, best friends with them. And I think that's so cool because not everyone gets that."
Skarupa went on to play at Boston College, where she had 244 points (115 goals, 129 assists) in 144 NCAA Division I games. The New York Riveters of the National Women's Hockey League selected her with the No. 9 pick in the 2015 NWHL Draft and traded her rights to the Connecticut Whale on April 26, 2016. She has 45 points (19 goals, 26 assists) in 34 NWHL games with the Whale and Boston Pride.